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About Dickens 



BEING A 

FEW ESSAYS ON THEMES SUGGESTED 

BY THE NOVELS 



BY 

HENRY LEFFMANN, A.M., M.D., 

PBOFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE OP 
PENNSYLVANIA AND IN THE WAGNER FREE INSTI- 
TUTE OF SCIENCE OF PHILADELPHIA 



PHILADELPHIA 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
1908 






l^t" 



Gift 
Author 

• 
9'Je J9 



pp^ess or 

WM. F. FELL COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 



Preface 



Only one essay in this collection needs com- 
ment. The article, " Dickens as a Nature Faker," 
was prepared especially for presentation at a meet- 
ing of the Philadelphia Branch of the Dickens 
Fellowship at a time when considerable attention 
was being given in the newspapers to stories about 
wild animals. The essay was written in rather a 
playful mood. 

H. L. 

October, 1908. 



Contents 



PAGE 

Dickens' Doctors 3 

German Appreciation of Dickens 11 

The Influence of Dickens in America 23 

Dickens as a Nature Faker 31 

Abstract of a French Criticism of Dickens' Writings . 38 

Thoughts on the Drood Mystery 50 

Examples of Translations of Poems 67-68 



Dickens' Doctors. 



Read at the first stated meeting of the Philadelphia Branch of The 
Dickens Fellowship. 



To understand the attitude of Dickens toward 
the medical profession, we must consider several 
points. In the first place we must bear in mind 
that his important writings cover the period from 
1837 to 1870. Great progress has been made by 
the medical profession since that period. Many 
specialties have been clearly differentiated from 
the main body, and in these, as in the now almost 
independent department of general surgery, anti- 
sepsis, and chemical and microscopic methods 
have brought the art of healing much nearer to a 
true science. Secondly, the social position of the 
physician has risen considerably. The organiza- 
tion of the profession through its societies and its 
journals has enabled it to exert powers in politics 
and social evolution that were unknown in Dickens' 
day. 

So far as I can judge, the social position of 
medical men in England is rather inferior. It is 
to be noted that very few of them have received the 
honors which are so appreciated in England and so 
liberally bestowed on soldiers, merchants, lawyers, 

3 



brewers and novelists — namely, admission to the 
higher nobility. Very rarely has a doctor been 
made a peer. Lord Lister is conspicuous as an 
exception. Even Benjamin Brodie, Sergeant-sur- 
geon to the late Queen, who for many years was the 
most intimate attendant on the sovereign, never 
rose above knighthood. Seventy years ago many 
English doctors were essentially tradesmen. Their 
office was a drug-store (the surgery, it was called). 
They were not necessarily men of much culture, 
for the license to practise could be obtained with- 
out a university education, although the degree of 
M.D. could not be so easily secured. Moreover, 
an important branch of the profession, that of the 
surgeon, is separate from the bulk of the physicians 
and regards the latter with some degree of aloofness. 

Dickens had a high sense of humor, and he 
therefore saw in every phase of life odd and amus- 
ing features. He has dealt rather flippantly with 
all the learned professions — law, medicine, and 
divinity. His lawyers are a striking feature, due 
probably to his association with them in his early 
life. He dealt severely with the dissenting minis- 
ters, as witness Mr. Stiggins and Mr. Chadband. 
Most of his doctors are unattractive and many 
despicable. 

His first novel presents us with the two medical 
students who will not be forgotten as long as Eng- 
lish is a living language. Before they leave the 
scene, they are licensed to practise and Mr. Sawyer 



has established himself in his surgery (late Nockem- 
orf), to which he probably did not disdain to call 
attention by a red lamp. There is, perhaps, a de- 
gree of caricature in the devices to secure patients; 
yet I have been informed on good authority that 
one well-known local specialist did not disdain, in 
the early days of his practice, to hire persons to 
sit in the waiting-room of his office to impress the 
few real patients that visited him. In "Oliver 
Twist," which was next after Pickwick, we find the 
estimable Dr. Losberne, with whom the most 
critical disciple of iEsculapius is not likely to be 
displeased. Yet even in this invention, the 
spontaneous humor of the author finds vent in 
giving to the doctor a marked degree of artlessness 
and innocence. 

Dickens' novels present, in some respects, a 
regular evolution dependent on the evolution of 
society. In some phases of criticism it would be 
necessary to take up the works in the order of their 
appearance, but this is not necessary in the matter 
now under treatment. Dickens did not study the 
medical profession as he studied charity systems 
or legal procedure. His doctors are spontaneous 
creations of his imagination tempered by acute 
observations. Many of his characters are com- 
posites, often inconsistent. It has been noted, for 
instance, that Mr. Perker, the attorney, is not true 
to himself. In the first presentation of him at the 
elopement of the spinster aunt and at Eatanswill, 



he is alert, shrewd and not especially scrupulous, but 
in Bardell vs. Pickwick he is inane and negligent. 

In Mr. Jobling, M.R.C.S., Medical Director of the 
Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life As- 
surance Company, we have a fairly correct picture 
of the corporation doctor. Both he and the com- 
pany he serves find abundant counterparts in our 
own time and country. Not the least of the 
touches of nature which we can still appreciate 
is Jobling's manner of expressing himself to certain 
patients about the "nonsensical bottles in his sur- 
gery," "for," he says, "they are nonsense — to tell 
the honest truth — one half are nonsense." It will be 
noted that as M.R.C.S. he is Mr. not Dr. Jobling. 
In one of Dickens' minor stories appears a Dr. 
Wosky, who is the type of the subservient doctor 
who encourages his patients in all their fantasies 
and eccentricities. He is of a genus by no means 
extinct. 

One of the most favorable representations of the 
medical profession is a type rather than a person. 
This is "Physician" in "Little Dorrit." Here 
again we have a delineation that must be pleasing 
to the medical profession. The social status is high 
and has been won by professional ability. The 
confidences that are necessarily imposed on such a 
man are sketched with an accurate hand. Let me 
quote : 

" The dinner party was at the great Physician's. 
"Bar was there and in full force. Ferdinand 



" Barnacle was there and in his most engaging state. 
"Few ways of life were hidden from Physician 
" and he was oftener in its darkest places than even 
"Bishop. . . . As no man of large experience 
"of humanity, however quietly carried it may be, 
"can fail to be invested with an interest peculiar 
" to the possession of such knowledge, Physician was 
" an attractive man. . . . Where he was, some- 
thing real was. ... It came to pass, there- 
fore, that Physician's little dinners always pre- 
sented people in their least conventional lights. 
" The guests said to themselves, whether they were 
" conscious of it or not, 'Here is a man who really 
" has an acquaintance with us as we are, who is ad- 
" mitted to some of us every day with our wigs and 
" paint off, who hears the wanderings of our minds, 
"and sees the undisguised expression of our faces, 
"when both are past our control; we may as well 
"make an approach to reality with him, for the 
" man has got the better of us, and is too strong for 
"us'. Therefore Physician's guests came out so 
"surprisingly at his round table that they were 
"almost natural." 

Several doctors of different types are scattered 
through "Bleak House," and one occupies a posi- 
tion unusual for that profession in Dickens' novels, 
and perhaps generally in English novels, being, 
according to the standard of modern romance, the 
hero, since he marries the heroine. Allen Wood- 
court is, indeed, all that the young reader of 



8 

romance would wish; brave, kind, sincere, faithful 
and adventurous, but he is so slightly sketched 
and so infrequent in his appearance that he pro- 
duces no impression. Far different is it with Mr. 
Bayham Badger, who appears but little also, but 
that little quite enough to disgust us with him. 
Mr. Badger may seem to be an impossibility, but 
with the intense class consciousness of the English 
people, added to the not inappreciable class con- 
sciousness of professionals, we may accept him and 
his wife as included in the maxim that it takes all 
kinds of people to make a world. We find, in the 
same novel, a passing allusion which confirms what 
I said concerning the relative social status of the 
medical profession. "By all that is base and 
despicable," cried Mr. Boythorne, "the treatment 
of surgeons aboard ship is such that I would sub- 
mit the legs of every member of the Admiralty 
Board to a compound fracture, and render it a 
transportable offence in any qualified practitioner 
to set them, if the system was not wholly changed 
in twenty-four hours" — and much more in the 
same style. 

In "A Tale of Two Cities" Dr. Manette oc- 
cupies the most prominent position of any of 
Dickens' doctors, but quite out of relation to the 
medical profession, since that part of his life is 
merely history. Mr. Chillip in " David Copperfield ' ' 
is of the Losberne type, mild and simple-hearted, 
but faithful and competent. It has been said of 



Thackeray that his women characters may be 
arranged in two well-marked classes — the smart 
bad women and the simple good ones. It may, I 
think, be said of Dickens' doctors that they are 
either pompous, hypocritical and self-abasing, 
"crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee that 
thrift may follow fawning," or they are singularly 
unworldly, innocent creatures without ambition 
or force of character. It will not be necessary to 
multiply instances. Our novelist was not favorably 
impressed with the medical profession. It plays, 
it is true, but a secondary part in his stories, but 
such members as appear are not given an attractive 
form except in the rare instance quoted from " Little 
Dorrit." It might be thought that part of the in- 
difference and inappreciation comes from un- 
familiarity with the members of the profession, but 
Dickens lived nearly threescore years and must 
have had occasion to meet many physicians in their 
practical work. 

Before dismissing the subject it is worth while 
to inquire if the attitude of the novelist is not un- 
avoidable. Does it not grow out of the artistic 
limitations; in other words, do the life and work of 
a physician lend themselves to the purposes of the 
novelist? I am inclined to think that they do not. 
It is different with the other two great professions. 
In "Robert Ellsmere," "Dr. Primrose/' and "Ar- 
thur Dimmesdale" we have instances of the ar- 
tistic possibilities with the clerical profession. The 



10 

obligations laid upon them, their duty to resist 
temptation and to maintain a hopeful and contented 
spirit in the midst of misfortune, are all capable 
of being worked into dramatic narratives and 
climaxes. The lawyer can figure in intricate prob- 
lems of crime and be an intimate part of that most 
fascinating form of narrative, the detective story. 
The daily incidents of the life of a clergyman or 
lawyer are easily presented and generally appre- 
ciated; but the daily incidents of a doctor's life 
can scarcely be detailed by any but those who have 
experienced them, and many of these experiences 
are not suited to general literature. 

A modern instance may be quoted in support of 
my contention. The doctor-author, Sir Conan 
Doyle, has a great vogue. We are told that he 
gets enormous prices for his manuscripts. His 
"Sherlock Holmes" is one of the few creations of 
the present day that takes rank in popularity and 
value as a type with Dickens' creations. Doyle 
does not owe his popularity or his title to his por- 
trayal of the medical man. His " Round the Red 
Lamp" was not the basis of his fame. This was 
due to the discovery of Sherlock, and although Dr. 
Watson appears frequently in the stories, it is almost 
always as contrast, by his inaptitude and want of 
perspicacity, to heighten the brilliancy of Sherlock's 
methods. 



German Appreciation of Dickens. 



Read before the Philadelphia Branch of The Dickens Fellowship. 



The Italian proverb, " Traduttore, traditore" 
("Translator, traitor"), finds abundant exempli- 
fication in all literature, ancient and modern. 
Notwithstanding the facilities of modern literature, 
it is still necessary for those who would be fully ac- 
quainted with any work to read it in the original. 
This is partly because each country and each period 
of history has its colloquialisms, slang, and dialect 
which find no specific equivalent in other tongues, 
but careless or incompetent translators often seek 
to excuse imperfections by alleging "untrans- 
latability," when higher scholarship or more patient 
search of dictionaries would discover equivalents. 

Among modern nations a difference may be noted 
in what may be called the "translator's con- 
science," by which I mean the care taken to render 
an author faithfully and clearly. The German is 
easily first in this respect. One has only to look 
over the standard German translations of Shak- 
spere to see how every word has been examined as 
to its meaning, and the nearest German equivalent 
selected, a task that is most difficult, for many 
expressions in Shakspere are of uncertain meaning 
2 11 



12 

even to the best English scholars. Moreover, the 

grammatical requirements of one language often 

give rise to difficulties that are not in the other 

language. This fact finds a striking example in a 

line in "Othello." When Othello states that 

Desdemona 

"wished 

That Heaven had made her such a man," 
the English reader does not need to pass upon the 
question whether the lady meant that she wished to 
be such a man or wished such a man had been sent 
to woo her; but the German translator faces the 
problem whether to translate "made her such a 
man" or " made for her such a man." The leading 
translator has decided on the latter form, which 
is the more creditable to Desdemona's woman- 
liness. 

Charles Dickens is a difficult author to translate. 
Not that his style is involved or difficult. On the 
contrary, his language is simple and clear, although 
sometimes showing errors in form and occasionally 
the colloquial errors in grammar. The difficulty 
arises from the largely local and contemporary 
character of much of his best writings, and his ex- 
tensive use of English folk-lore. Many a time are 
his German translators puzzled by allusions to 
nursery rhymes that are literally "household 
words" to English-speaking people. Jack Horner, 
Mother Hubbard, and such mythical creatures 
render foot-notes necessary, sometimes leading 



13 

merely to vague suggestions that the allusion is to 
some "Kindermaerchen" ("child's story"). The 
dialects, of course, give trouble. The immortal 
advice of the elder Weller "to put it down a we" 
necessitates a footnote in which a play on the words 
"fellow" and "feller" is vaguely suggested, mak- 
ing it evident that the translator is innocently but 
wholly astray. 

In the works of some of the great English writers, 
such as Thackeray, Bulwer or Byron, classical 
allusions are frequent. In that field the German 
translator is perfectly at home. He will find ten 
times more difficulty in dealing with an allusion to 
Miss Muffet than in dealing with an allusion to even 
a recondite Greek or Latin work. 

It is gratifying to English-speaking persons to 
note the great vogue that some English writers have 
in Germany. Shakspere is studied quite as as- 
siduously as in England or America. Byron is 
highly appreciated. Many of our modern humor- 
ists are well known. A few months ago Sherlock 
Holmes' methods figured in a cartoon in the Flie- 
gende Blaetter. 

The complete series of Dickens' novels and his 
more important shorter stories can now be ob- 
tained in German form. Paul Heichen's transla- 
tions are most carefully done. An examination of 
the text shows that very rarely is a difficulty ig- 
nored or superficially treated. Not infrequently 
the translator places frankly before the reader the 



14 

insufficiency of his work. Here and there are 
positive errors, but the main features of the text 
are brought clearly before the reader. Sam Wel- 
ler's dialect speech, of course, offers some difficulty. 
Much study would be required to enable one to 
assign the novels of Dickens to their position in 
relation to standard German fiction, but I have no 
doubt that all critics would place them very high. 
One German critic has declared that "David 
Copperfield" is the greatest novel of the nine- 
teenth century. Personally, I incline to the view 
that " A Tale of Two Cities" is the greatest of the 
series, a view that was expressed by Richard Grant 
White many years ago. Modern German fiction, 
like that of other lands, offers much that cannot 
be classed with Dickens, not because of inferiority, 
but as being of a wholly different type. Such are 
the works of Muhlbach and Ebers. Novels dealing 
with court or camp or with ancient times have no 
plane of comparison with those of our author, whose 
chief charm arises from the narrow localization and 
close contemporaneousness of most of his work. 
In only two of his novels does he carry the reader to 
a time preceding the nineteenth century, and he is 
scarcely ever away from England. The unique- 
ness of Dickens' genius is shown when we compare 
him with the other great writers of his time and 
place. Note, for instance, the contrast between his 
works and those of Bulwer, Collins or Thackeray, 
especially the last named. Thackeray probably 



15 

comes nearest to Dickens among all contemporary 
writers. He has had the fortune to add a few 
names to the world's stock of typical characters, 
but his novels abound in classicisms and in scenes 
among the idle rich. Charles Dickens certainly had 
"little Latin and less Greek," and the nobility at 
home are seen only in " Bleak House," and then not 
to particular advantage. In drawing the char- 
acters of a few tuft-hunters such as the Veneerings, 
the titled aristocracy appear occasionally, but 
leave no impress of moment. 

My own limited acquaintance with German 
fiction leads me to place Dickens with Reuter and 
Auerbach. The former, it is true, is not strictly 
German, but the Low Dutch in which he wrote is 
closely allied to German, the difference being not 
appreciably greater than that between modern 
English and the Scotch dialect of Burns. No 
person of ordinary education can read Burns with- 
out frequent use of the dictionary. 

It will be, I think, of interest to give a transla- 
tion of what an editor of Fritz Reuter's works has 
to say of the relations between that writer and 
Dickens. 

Adolph Wilbrandt, in the preface to his edition of 
Reuter's complete works, says: 

"Reuter was not of handsome personal ap- 
pearance, though stately, vigorous, agreeable, 
"with eyes that shone clear and earnestly, yet he 
" lacked the ideal stimulating qualities one expects 



16 

" in a poet. Similarly, his life did not run in the 
" brilliancy and enchantment of a favorite of the 
"gods. When we compare him with an English 
"contemporary, Boz, whom he resembles most in 
"genius, we note how differently fate has mingled 
"the colors in the two creations. The figure of 
" Dickens seems to crush the other. An apparently 
" boundless talent, carried forward by all the winds 
"of success; at twenty-four a prolific writer, at 
" twenty-five famous, a part of the greatest city of 
"the earth, which is full of buoyant life, with 
" limitless opportunities for observation, in comedy 
"and tragedy. A man of truly soaring imagina- 
tion, who plunged, with youthful ardor, into the 
"tumult of the life of this great city, which in- 
" spirited him and with which he was infused. 

" On the other hand, Fritz Reuter was the homely 
"man of a dialect, provincial, unfitted to dazzle or to 
"sparkle, appearing before the world first in 
"ripe years, one of those cautious mortals, who 
" mature late in life, of whom he himself once said: 
" 'We Low Dutch are of hard wood that ignites 
" with difficulty, but then glows.' I may add with 
" an enduring, warming glow — a glow that give its 
"warmth to mankind as long as will the more 
" dazzling fire that burns in Boz. Reuter was not 
" endowed with the kindly subjectivity of imagina- 
tion that is manifested so uncontrollably in the 
"better hours of the English humorist, but his 
" thoughtful objectivity made him a truer mirror of 



17 

" nature. There is a classic feature in him which 
"quietly and fully brings him near to the most 
"modern of mankind." 

I have before me Heichen's translation of 
"Little Dorrit." I am not entirely satisfied with 
the German rendering, "Klein Dorrit." It seems 
to me that the title "Dorritchen" would have con- 
veyed the author's meaning better, for I have 
little doubt that in his title Dickens intended to 
sound a note of endearment or sympathy; the 
neuter diminutives in "chen" and "lein" are used 
for such purpose. I also feel that possibly the 
translator has missed the meaning of the immortal 
phrase, " How not to do it." His rendering literally 
means " how one must not do it," which seems to 
me to miss the fine, cutting sarcasm of the motto. 
The English expression is strongly idiomatic and 
somewhat ambiguous, so that the translator may 
be pardoned for a misunderstanding. 

Passing to more specific matters, I give a trans- 
lation by myself of a portion of an essay that is an 
appendix to Heichen's translation of "Little 
Dorrit." It is a discussion of Dickens' merits as a 
novelist, called forth by the twenty-fifth return of 
the date of his death, June 9, 1895. 

"Twenty-five years ago the report of Charles 
" Dickens' death flashed over England, awakening 
"sorrow and emotion. From England the news 
" spread over the world, and it was not only English- 
" speaking people whose sympathies were aroused. 



18 

" He who, by his noble works, merciful acts of true 
"humanity, had excited tears of joy; he who had 
" given impulse to so many betterments in the life 
"of his nation; he who in all that he wrote had 
"before him the ideal of true humanity; he who 
" had friends everywhere, was everywhere beloved 
"and mourned. The sorrow in England was 
"great, the darling of the people, the intimate 
" friend of every household was gone. The orator 
" at the funeral in Westminster Abbey, where the 
"departed was laid amidst the memorials of 
"Chaucer, Shakspere and Dryden, said, This place 
" shall henceforth be sacred, in the old as well as 
" in the new world, as the resting place of the rep- 
resentative of the literature not merely of this 
"island, but of all places where English is spoken.' 
" He should have said of the whole world. Dick- 
ons' novels are world property. However 
"strictly English many of his creations are, how- 
"ever English is the tone of many of his stories, 
"yet their purpose, a world-embracing, world-ad- 
vancing, world-uplifting purpose, gives them a 
"permanent position outside of the land of their 
"origin. Everyone can read them, and it is not 
"the least merit of them (notwithstanding that 
"modern literature has departed from this prin- 
ciple), that in the thousands of pages that Dick- 
"ens has written scarcely one can be found that 
" may not be given to a child to read. The secret 
" of his art and fame is that he presented humanity 



19 

"in such form as to arouse human sympathy; 
" that he penetrated the inmost heart of everyone, 
" found the nucleus of good that is in every breast, 
" and broke the concealing shell. 

"A blessed genius with boundless imagination, 
" a passionate soul that felt itself attracted by the 
"life of the great capital and absorbed by it, an 
"acuteness of observation that searched to the 
"depths the sources of laughter and of tears, a 
"poet of inexhaustible humor and of fascinating 
"tragedy, he was in his twenty-fourth year a 
"prolific writer, and by his twenty-fifth year fa- 
"mous. 'Pickwick/ in 1837, made him at one 
"stroke a popular author. The rapidity with 
"which the work appeared made it necessarily 
"somewhat sketchy, but the sketches are lively, 
"the characters realistic. It seemed incredible 
"that such personalities, met at every corner, 
"should not long before have been presented in 
"fiction. This outpouring of humor, this reality, 
"colored with caricature, which though strongly 
"drawn is not misleading, this immeasurable 
"supply of comic situations, comic personalities, 
" comic delineations, delights even those who know 
"nothing of English life and are unacquainted 
"with English peculiarities. His humor came 
"from the heart and went to the heart. Sam 
"Weller began the series of characters which dis- 
" played the greatest force, characters of a type that 
"novelists before or since have not invented or 



20 

'described. It was in these characters that 
'Dickens most delighted. He knew how to de- 
1 velop their peculiarities and make them more and 
'more attractive. They are honorable creations 
'of Nature in spite of their shabby clothes and 
' rude speech, philosophers in humble endurance, 
'angels of sympathy and self-denial, slaves of 
'their environment who finally break their chains 
'by an act of love. The series is continued by 
' Newman Noggs, Miss La Creevy, Dick Swiveller, 
' and finds its final development in Sydney Carton." 
The translator's remarks on the origin of the 
proper names of Dickens' characters are in some 
respects more amusing than valuable. Writers of 
fiction show considerable tendency to coining 
suggestive names for prominent characters. 
Thackeray's Becky Sharp and Warren's Oily Gam- 
mon are well-known instances, but it is generally 
thought that Dickens drew most of his names from 
actual records. However, in the Barnacle family 
he surely fitted the sound to the sense intentionally. 
The German critic thinks that word is used in the 
sense of "brake," that is the restraining apparatus 
for vehicles, but Dickens, surely, had the commoner 
meaning in view, namely, the animals that attach 
themselves to the submerged part of ships and 
delay their movement. The Barnacles of "Little 
Dorrit" were attached to the ship of state, much 
to the disadvantage of the latter, and we do not 
nowadays need to go to England to observe sim- 



21 

ilar phenomena. The German's attempt to con- 
nect the names Plornish and Merdle with French 
words, and thus to give them a deep significance, is, 
in my opinion, due to misunderstanding. 

Following this specific discussion of the merits 
of Dickens, the German critic gives a brief review 
of the novels and more important shorter stories in 
chronological order. As this notice is contained 
as an appendix to the translation of "Little 
Dorrit," he gives more space to the criticism of that 
novel than of the others. He ranks "Little Dor- 
rit" as one of the less meritorious novels, a view 
with which I am inclined to agree. The German 
critic says that it has too many issues that are not 
strictly correlated with the story proper. The 
Meagles family, and especially the Wade-Tatty- 
coram incident, would be better eliminated. He 
also disapproves of the Barnacle and Circumlocu- 
tion Office narrative, saying that however useful 
as scathing satire on official abuses, they are not 
germane to the novel. It is probable that the 
critic is a good deal under the influence of classical 
standards, and offended by a violation of the 
unities. It may be that in introducing and using 
so largely the story of the Circumlocution Office 
and its administrators Dickens departed from good 
literary methods, but it would have been a pity if 
the world had lost this great satire on official 
methods. On the whole, however, it will be found, 
I think, that "Little Dorrit" has given us less of 



22 

the typical Dickens personality than most of the 
novels. We cannot find in it any character that 
dominates it, as in the other books. Little Dorrit 
herself may be good, but she is such a fool; Arthur 
Clennam is as limp as a wet rag. On the other 
hand, the history of high finance by an "unde- 
sirable citizen" of the type that is now so abundant 
in our own country is of great interest, and the 
pictures of toadies and tuft-hunters that swirl 
around Mr. Merdle can be duplicated in any large 
city of this country. 

Other critics have expressed similar views as to 
the comparative inferiority of "Little Dorrit." 
An English critic called it "empty twaddle." 
Dickens himself saw and alluded to this criticism. 
The German translator thinks that the author 
might have been fully comforted on this matter if 
he had lived to learn of an incident which occurred 
about four months after his death. 

The occasion was the meeting, under truce and 
outside the walls of Paris, of Jules Favre and 
Bismarck to discuss the conditions under which the 
Germans might abandon the siege of Paris. A 
journal of the time reports that while the two 
distinguished statesmen were conversing, General 
von Moltke was sitting in a corner of the tent 
reading "Little Dorrit." Heichen suggests that 
the general was probably reading the chapter on 
"How not to do it." 



The Influence of Dickens in America. 



Written at the request of Mr. B. W. Matz, Editor of The Dickensian, for 
the special American Edition (July, 1908) and reprinted by permission. 



It is a matter of astonishment that a writer 
whose scenes and incidents are almost entirely 
localized in the capital of another nation, should 
have produced so profound an impression upon the 
minds of the people of the United States. To all 
intents and purposes, Charles Dickens is a citizen of 
London only, and his story is nearly always that of 
life in that city in the nineteenth century. Only 
in two of his novels, "Barnaby Rudge" and "A 
Tale of Two Cities," does he pass into the eigh- 
teenth century, and except in narratives of travel, 
he scarcely ever carries the reader out of Eng- 
land. He was twice in the United States. The 
two occasions were separated by a quarter of a 
century, and events in the history of this country 
had changed its social features in a great degree. 
When he came in '42, slavery was a generally 
accepted institution; murmurings against it were 
heard here and there, but the force of public senti- 
ment was against interference and its opponents 
were often treated very harshly. William Lloyd 
Garrison, a noted anti-slavery orator, was dragged 

23 



24 

through the streets of Boston and threatened with 
death by a gathering of citizens of so respectable a 
type that it was called the " Broadcloth Mob." 

Dickens, coming from a country in which 
social conditions had long since reached reasonable 
stability, and in which a large and active landed 
aristocracy had been for centuries exerting its 
influence upon the mass of the population, and, 
moreover, coming from a city the largest in the 
world and exhibiting the highest development 
of municipal culture of the time, naturally found 
American society crude and brutal. In all prob- 
ability, a distinctly deteriorating influence was 
exerted by the slave states upon the North as well 
as upon themselves, and there was a degree of 
coarseness of habit and speech which could not 
but be offensive to one brought up in a community 
where restraint in these respects was more general. 
It may be true that, as a total, the London popula- 
tion was no better mannered than the population 
of the great American cities, but, as Horace said, 
" Their sky, not their minds, they change who hurry 
over the sea," and the vices and brutalities of the 
English people would naturally impress Dickens 
less than would other vices and brutalities to which 
he was not accustomed. In this first visit he was 
received with considerable heartiness, from which 
it is evident that his novels had already endeared 
him to the mass of the reading public of this country. 



25 

At the time of this visit, he had published " Pick- 
wick," "Oliver Twist," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Old 
Curiosity Shop" and "Barnaby Rudge." He had, 
therefore, presented several characters which ap- 
peal to intelligent human beings in any land. 
Drawn as they were from the narrow circle of his 
life in England, they were types of human nature 
as true as any that could have been found in Nine- 
veh or Athens or Rome or in any modern city in the 
civilized world: Sam Weller, Dolly Varden, New- 
man Noggs, Mr. Crummies, Mr. Mantalini and last 
but not least, Little Nell and the Marchioness. The 
great novelist had shown his powers in moving to 
laughter or to tears and in developing interesting 
and intricate plots. It is worth noticing in passing 
that the only statue of Dickens is the bronze in 
Clarence H. Clark park in Philadelphia, the figure 
of the novelist seated, with Little Nell standing at 
his knee, gazing into his face. 

Dickens returned to England and about a year 
later produced " Martin Chuzzlewit " and " American 
Notes." The latter is like most simple stories of 
travel. Novels are read by the million, and in the 
novel Dickens came near destroying all friendly 
feeling for him in this country. The American 
portion of the story is one of the most unsatis- 
factory features in all the work of the great writer. 
He failed to see the underlying principles of the 
nation. Perhaps it was difficult to see them at that 
time, but it seems to me that he should have 



26 

dealt with the adventures of Martin and Mark 
in a somewhat different spirit. 

If Dickens had returned to the United States 
within a few years after the publication of "Martin 
Chuzzlewit," it is not improbable that his reception 
would have been not very cordial, but time heals 
many heartburnings. Moreover, the interval was 
filled with literary activity of a kind to efface dis- 
agreeable memories by presenting a series of very 
brilliant pictures of characters and incidents in the 
great novels of the latter period of his life. Such 
productions as" David Copperfield," " Hard Times," 
"Little Dorrit" and "A Tale of Two Cities," 
appealed to the American people and introduced 
into English literature types that have become an 
essential part of our imaginative life; Mr. Micawber, 
Mr. Gradgrind, the Dorrit family, Dr. Manette and 
Sydney Carton, to instance a few. From the 
other novels of this period interesting features were 
drawn, but they are probably secondary in their 
value to those just enumerated. As mentioned 
above, political changes in this country had greatly 
affected the attitude of the people toward the life 
that was satirized in "Martin Chuzzlewit." The 
overthrow of the slave power was accompanied by 
considerable change of opinion regarding the class of 
persons associated with that power. The northern 
people, at least, had lost most of their admiration 
of the type of citizen which Dickens had presented. 
He therefore found on his second visit extra- 



27 

)rdinary popularity. The limited number of read- 
ngs he gave proved quite insufficient for the multi- 
tude that wished to hear him, and many citizens 
stood in line for hours to secure tickets. 

Dickens' novels are generally considered to be 
vritten with a purpose other than that of merely 
iffording opportunity for whiling away leisure time, 
[n most of them we perceive an effort at securing 
lome reform in the management of public affairs; 
;he law's delay, insufficiency of poor-law relief, 
;he unpractical character of much of the missionary 
vork in heathen lands, were among the objects 
)f his condemnation. These features did not 
ippeal very strongly to the general American 
public. In the United States, as in all countries, 
-he law is exasperating in its methods, but America 
lid not suffer as much as England from the burden 
)f antiquated forms of procedure and the complex 
systems of jurisprudence. In a new country, 
vhere land is freely open to settlement on liberal 
,erms and nature is bountiful, questions of poor- 
•elief are of little moment, and in a country, which 
vas the case with the United States, up to ten 
rears ago, without any colonial possessions, 
nissionary work is purely a matter of church ad- 
ninistration and excites but little general attention, 
rhe American heart was, therefore, somewhat cold 
,o the recital of the delays of Chancery and the 
ivils of imprisonment for debt; it was not greatly 
mpressed by the wastefulness of Mrs. Jellyby's 
3 



28 

interest in Borrioboola-Gha; and it had no knowl- 
edge of the beadle or the parish work-house. 

The impress of the novelist upon the American 
mind is the unrivalled flow of humor, kaleidoscopic 
in brilliancy and range; the delineation of types of 
character that represent fundamental principles in 
human nature, and lastly, but by no means least, the 
purity of thought and wholesomeness of motive that 
are so dominantly characteristic of all his work. 
The general trend of literature in America is toward 
moral cleanliness. It is true that this has been 
sadly broken down in the last twenty years, but 
there is still a goodly portion of it left. The cleanli- 
ness of Dickens has been observed and praised by 
German writers. 

That the impress of Dickens is deep and wide- 
spread in America is shown by the popularity 
and activity of the branch fellowships, the popu- 
larity of his works and the frequent allusions in 
general literature to the characters and expres- 
sions of the novels. If the law's delay is to be 
condemned, Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce is mentioned; 
if officialism is to be attacked, the Circumlocution 
Office and its motto are quoted. Every now and 
then, in large American cities, organized bands 
of thieves are discovered, and Fagin and his gang 
are always mentioned. Everybody knows of a 
firm that does business on the Spenlow and Jorkins 
principle. " Podsnappery " runs a close race with 
"chauvinism" as a term for excessive nationalism. 



29 

Recently the Philadelphia Ledger had an edi- 
torial headed "Municipal Micawberism," being a 
condemnation of the reckless methods of ad- 
ministering the finances of the city of Philadelphia. 

Once a year the newspaper and magazines blaze 
out with Christmas literature, in which the great 
Christmas stories are more or less extensively told 
again, to the delight and betterment of millions 
of the young. 

Dickens stands next to Shakspere in the avail- 
ability of his characters and expressions in every- 
day life. That Dickens has impressed his work 
so much more strongly than the other great novel- 
ists of the nineteenth century (Thackeray and 
Bulwer, for instance) on the people of the United 
States is due partly, at least, to the large share he 
gives to the middle and lower class, whose tem- 
peraments, struggles and aspirations can be under- 
stood by the people of this country. 

The moral effect of the novels and stories must 
not be overlooked. The sociologic reforms at 
which some of them aimed may, as I said above, 
be of minor importance, but the lesson which is so 
forcibly taught through many thousands of pages, 
that absorbing interest, sympathy, merriment and 
vivid delineation of character and incident may be 
obtained without resorting to expressed or implied 
indecency, is of the utmost value in forming a 
•standard of public morals. Dickens' novels have 
had a great effect in this direction in this country. 



30 



Comparisons are odious, but it is not unfair to 
assert that Dickens stands easily first among the 
writers of prose fiction whose names are enshrined 
in the hearts of the American people. 



Dickens as a Nature Faker. 



Read before the Philadelphia Branch of The Dickens Fellowship. 



Scientific men are now generally agreed that 
all living organisms are biologically kindred and 
the result of evolution through the ages. This 
is, however, so new as a fundamental dogma in 
natural history, that many now living can remem- 
ber its formal publication and the antagonisms 
that it aroused. For many centuries mankind 
regarded itself as a special development, with no 
relations to other animals except in form; but 
the ordinary experiences of men, even in the lowest 
known states of culture, show that many of the lower 
animals have some of our faculties in an imperfect 
state. They show anger, friendship, affection, 
astonishment, terror, delight, craft and disappoint- 
ment. They have memory and forethought and 
apply these to the ordinary emergencies of life. It 
is true that their emotions, passions and capacities 
are imperfectly expressed, but the difference be- 
tween such expression and that of human beings 
is of degree rather than kind. It is the involuntary 
and unconscious acknowledgment by man of his kin- 
ship with the animal world that has led to enlarge- 

31 



32 

ment of the powers of the latter, and to the attribu- 
tion to some of the lower animals of mental capacities 
equal to those of men, and much higher than have been 
observed, or, so far as we know, than are possible. 

The vast mass of animal folk-lore is not equally 
developed among all nations. In particular, the 
Jewish race in its full development took a power- 
ful opposition to any view that brought man into 
kinship with the rest of nature. According to con- 
cepts of the Rabbinical philosophy, man is a thing 
apart, except as to his relations to Jahveh. Even 
an admiration of natural phenomena was depre- 
cated. Job, in protesting that he does not deserve 
his sufferings, declares that he has not even ad- 
mired the sun or moon. Notwithstanding these 
tendencies, several instances of personification are 
to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Such are 
the serpent in Eden, the Balaam incident and 
the fable of Jotham. The last deserves special 
mention, and is evidently of high antiquity, for 
it gives speech to trees and is in striking contrast 
to the text in which it has been imbedded. 

Charles Dickens had extraordinary powers of 
observation, but they were exercised almost en- 
tirely within the field of human nature as seen in 
highly organized society. To the general phenom- 
ena of nature, that is, the forms and interactions 
of living matter, he was almost indifferent. He 
was not a scientist in the technical sense of that 
term. As far as he has touched on scientific work 



33 

in his novels, he has been more merry than appre- 
ciative, as witness the scientific gentleman who 
watched Mr. Pickwick's performance with the dark 
lantern. In the early days of the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, Dickens 
burlesqued it at some length, under the title of 
"The Mudfog Association." This effort must be 
regarded as a failure, and has deservedly fallen into 
oblivion. It is true that in those days science did 
not have the popularity it has to-day, but it was 
the period in which great men, such as Faraday, 
Darwin, Humboldt and Cuvier, were adding to the 
world's stock of useful knowledge. 

Notwithstanding this attitude, a mind so con- 
stituted as that of Dickens could not be wholly 
indifferent to animal life, especially to those ani- 
mals that are forced into association with us either 
for use or amusement. Here and there in his 
stories are to be found animals to whom he has 
given some of the individuality so characteristic 
of his writings. 

Barnaby's raven is, perhaps, the best known. 
Dickens says, in the preface to the novel, that the 
bird is a composite of two ravens that he at dif- 
ferent times owned. It is, I think, unlikely that 
any bird ever had such powers of speech and under- 
standing. We must feel that, as in chemistry the 
combination of two substances gives rise to proper- 
ties not in either constituent, so in mingling the 
two ravens the author has developed new features. 



34 

"Grip" is much too responsive to the changing 
fortunes of his owner, and learns too quickly the 
catchwords of his company, for us to doubt that he 
is something of a "fake," in the technical sense in 
which that word is now used in nature-study. 

Other birds are presented in the novels, but they 
are inferior to Grip, and may be allowed to go un- 
challenged. Mrs. Merdle's parrot seems, indeed, 
not to have been up to the usual standard of that 
animal. It could do little but screech. To be 
sure, it sometimes screeched at opportune mo- 
ments, but that may have been only coincidence. 
It could bite, as Mr. Merdle found to his sorrow. If 
it had any opinions, they were mainly as to the 
importance of the social code and the necessity 
of good society to a civilized community. Tim 
Linkenwater's blackbird and Miss Flite's caged pets 
need only passing mention. It is probable that 
the latter when set free were no better off than some 
of the human parties to the celebrated suit. 

Dogs appear in several of the novels, and Dickens' 
feelings toward that animal are probably more 
vividly presented in Sikes' dog than elsewhere. 
The animal, though shamefully ill treated, is 
always faithful to his master. In Henry Gowan's 
dog we have a more elegant type, but in this a 
tendency to romance appears. Apparently the 
dog was able to see the character of Blandois, 
which few of the Frenchman's fellow-creatures could 
do. The incident is detailed too briefly for us to 



35 

form a positive opinion. Blandois, at least, gave 
the dog credit for such powers of discernment, for 
he got rid of the animal. In the expression " dead 
as the Doges" we notice Dickens' attention to de- 
tail. Almost all of Dickens' literary allusions and 
proverbial expressions are drawn from familiar 
English authors and English folk-lore, but here he 
gives to the Frenchman an expression which is 
appropriate. 

It is, however, Mr. Jingle's dog that commands 
our greatest attention. 

"Ah, you should keep dogs — fine animals — 

sagacious animals — dog of my own once — Pointer 

— surprising instinct — out shooting one day — 

entering enclosure — whistled — dog stopped — 

whistled again — Ponto — no go — stock still — 

called him — Ponto — Ponto — wouldn't move — 

dog transfixed — staring at a board — looked up — 

saw an inscription — ' Gamekeeper has orders to 

shoot all dogs found in this enclosure' — wouldn't 

pass it — wonderful dog — valuable dog — very. " 

In " Hard Times" we find two dogs of exceptional 

characters: Jupe's dog "Merry legs" and Mr. 

Sleary's dog that could " keep a man in one plathe 

for twenty-four hourths." Mr. Sleary was of the 

opinion that public life had given him an extensive 

acquaintance among dogs. In the account of how 

Merrylegs, after long wandering, found Mr. Sleary, 

greeted him by one of the old tricks and then fell 

dead, Dickens may be introducing a story that he 



36 

had heard from some one of Mr. Sleary's pro- 
fession. 

Several wonderful horses are presented. " Whis- 
ker," Mr. Garland's pony, is, perhaps, the most in- 
dependent and self-willed piece of horse-flesh ever in 
harness. Its curiosity is also remarkable. I can- 
not avoid the thought that some basis for this 
creature existed in the author's experience. It 
does not seem to be drawn entirely from his 
self-consciousness. Dickens was not a writer of 
high romance. He sometimes overdrew characters, 
or perhaps, to speak more accurately, either sup- 
pressed some features in order to bring out others 
more distinctly, or threw his characters, with 
unlikely frequency, into situations that brought out 
peculiar qualities. Thus, Pecksniff is put constantly 
into positions that bring out his insincerity; Mr. 
Dombey is brought often into situations that show 
his unfatherly feeling towards his daughter; Mr. 
Pickwick is placed almost uninterruptedly in cir- 
cumstances that compromise him. At the base of 
all these incidents are facts within the experience 
of the author. "Whisker" may be an overdrawn 
picture of a real pony, or like Barnaby's raven, a 
composite with features added from the author's 
imagination. 

Mr. Sleary's horse which could do almost any- 
thing but "thpeak" must be allowed standing as a 
result of special training. Wonderful things may 
be done with some animals. 



37 

This novel "Hard Times" will well repay study 
as an exposition of some of Dickens' opinions on 
economic questions. 

On the whole, it seems to me that our author has 
given but little attention to the animal world. His 
sympathies for mankind were broad and deep; his 
interest in English life was great, but almost 
unnoticed he 

" * * * i e t the stricken deer go weep, 
The hart ungalled play." 

"A primrose by a river's brim, 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more." 



Abstract of a French Criticism of 
Dickens' Writings. 



Read before the Philadelphia Branch of The Dickens Fellowship. 



I had the honor to present a few months ago 
to this branch a short account of some German 
views of Dickens, mostly taken from one of his 
recent translators, Paul Heichen. I have been 
further honored in an invitation to present a 
paper to this meeting, and I have taken the op- 
portunity to present a criticism from French 
sources. 

The author whose opinions I am here abstracting 
is Louis Cazamian, a Doctor of Letters. He is broad, 
fair-minded, acute in critical perception and a 
master of the English language, so that he very 
rarely goes astray as to the significance of the text. 
His work is entitled " The Social Novel in England," 
understanding by the adjective the novel devoted 
to social problems, especially to problems in political 
economy. Four authors are considered — Dickens, 
Disraeli, Mrs. Gaskill and Kingsley. I am here 
concerned, of course, only with the first. 

It is impossible to present more than the briefest 
outlines in these short papers, and consequently 

38 



39 

a comparison of this essay with that on German 
criticism would lead one to think that the French 
regarded one aspect of Dickens and the Ger- 
mans another, but this is merely due to imperfect 
presentation of the topics. It has happened that 
the principal German criticisms that I have so 
far consulted are devoted largely to the style and 
general bearing of the writings, while the French 
criticisms at hand are upon the great problem- 
features thereof. Criticisms from other points 
of view are found in each of these great literatures, 
as well as in those of other Continental countries. 
I want to make a frank confession. It is that, 
although I have been reading Dickens since boy- 
hood, and with especial frequency in the last ten 
years, I have learned very much about him in the 
critical discussions in other languages. A story is 
told of the late Pope Leo XIII which may illustrate 
my feelings. I do not vouch for the truth of the 
tale, but one may apply to it the Italian proverb, 
" Se non e vero e molto ben trovato" (" If not true, 
it is a very good story"). The story is that when 
the Pope received special guests from abroad with 
whom he spoke at length, he would ask how long 
they expected to stay in Rome. If they said a few 
days, he would reply, " Ah ! then you will see Rome." 
If the reply was several weeks, he would comment, 
" Then you will see a good deal of Rome," but if the 
party intended to stay several months, he would 
say, " Ah! then you will begin to see Rome." So I 



40 

feel that I am just beginning to understand Dickens, 
and I have lately gained most valuable information 
from the criticisms of Doctor Cazamian, whose 
work, published in 1904, is the source of the 
material for this essay. 

Cazamian does not discuss the claim of Dickens 
to be a humorist, nor does he institute comparisons 
with other novelists, but he considers the rela- 
tion of the novelist to the movement of English 
economic forces, during the period from 1830 to 
1870. This was a period of great ferment in the 
industrial life of that country. At the earlier period 
it was easily first among the industrial nations of 
the world and was gathering possessions every- 
where. England's merchant and war marine were 
dominant in most seas and her manufactured 
products were in all markets. The overthrow 
of the feudal system, which had been politically 
accomplished in the reign of the Stuarts, was eco- 
nomically accomplished in the first half of the nine- 
teenth century. The steam-engine had brought 
about the factory system, and the stimulus that 
it gave had led to many labor-saving inventions 
that had begun their work of reducing labor to a 
compulsory contract basis and destroying individual 
opportunity. After a long struggle, the English 
workman had acquired some rights, among which 
was the right to form associations for mutual ad- 
vantage. The formation of a middle-class (bour- 
geoisie) and the squeezing out a lower class (pro- 



41 

letariat) had begun. The academic recognition of 
these changes had been made in Germany, through 
the writings of Marx and Engels, but at that period 
the German language was almost as little studied 
in England as Choctaw. Many Englishmen acted 
as if they held the opinion that Dickens has so 
well portrayed in Mr. Meagles, who thought that 
everybody ought to understand and speak plain 
English. 

It is one of the characteristics of genius that it 
can anticipate the slow processes of invention and 
discovery, and perceive the true relations of things 
without following the usual methods of research. 
Sir Isaac Newton guessed that the weight of the 
earth is between five and six times that of a globe 
of water of the same size, and that the diamond 
was more closely related to the organic than to the 
mineral world. After his time it was shown that 
the diamond is pure carbon, and the exact researches 
of astro-physics have given 5.5 as about the speci- 
fic gravity of the earth. Similarly, Shakspere had 
no opportunity to study insanity in its clinical fea- 
tures, but his powers of observation and comparison 
enabled him to present vivid delineations in Lear 
and Ophelia. In the same manner, in the political 
economy of his novels and major stories, Dickens 
presented views that anticipate by a considerable 
number of years the public appreciation of them. 
Now Dickens' power lay very largely in his capacity 
for minute observation and in the opportunities that 



42 

the country in which he lived afforded him. His 
city was the largest in the world and was also the 
greatest world-city. His early life was such as to 
show him the true inwardness of the economic 
stresses of the time. The French critic considers 
this fact so important that he begins his essay with 
a short account of the early life, and shows that in 
the technical language of Socialism, Dickens be- 
longed to the "petits bourgeoisie/' "the lower 
middle class." His class-consciousness was well 
developed. His novels and Christmas stories 
present conspicuously, under unfavorable aspects, 
the upper middle class in its oppressions of the 
proletariat. Scrooge, Ralph Nickleby, Bounderby, 
Jonas Chuzzlewit, are the marked men; behind them 
presses a crowd of minor characters, such as Filer 
and Alderman Cute. These men have certain 
traits in common. Their inner life and their worldly 
activity are vitiated by the same error: a false 
estimate of values. Among most of them, the dom- 
inant passion is money-getting; a few seek to 
gratify pride. In all of them the feelings and, 
particularly, the altruistic impulses are atrophied. 
The figure of Ralph Nickleby is, perhaps, the most 
accentuated. In spite of a certain degree of ex- 
aggeration and dramatic idealization of his traits, 
one recognizes clearly the picture of the individual- 
istic bourgeoisie. The hatred that Dickens has 
avowed for this personage has the intensity of a 
class-consciousness, a consciousness that sees in 



43 

this man the great adversary of the mutuality of 
the human race. 

The course of active financial speculation in 
England, running from 1815 to 1830, began to give 
rise to disastrous collapses in 1826 and 1837. The 
"railway mania" broke out between 1845 and 
1850. Many examples of the corrupt methods of 
finance are exemplified in the novels, such as " The 
United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and 
Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company," 
in which Ralph Nickleby was a promoter. 

A secondary set of characters, less severely dealt 
with, but nevertheless the object of sarcasm, are 
those who exhibit especially a contempt for the 
lowly, and a servile attachment to the nobility and 
to the conventions and vanities of the world. 
Dickens, says the French author, has satirized 
snobbery as pitilessly, though perhaps not as vividly, 
as Thackeray did. Instances are: the Wititterlys, 
Miss Monflathers, Mrs. Sparsit, Mrs. Gowan. That 
this was no passing antagonism is shown by the 
large space given in the last completed novel, " Our 
Mutual Friend," to the Veneerings and the Pod- 
snaps, who are always shown in an unfavorable light. 

In the opposite social direction, namely, toward 
the titled aristocracy, Dickens was equally critical. 
It is a matter of some astonishment that so little of 
this class is to be seen in his novels developed in a 
country in which it has so large a share of political 
activity. 
4 



44 

In the lustrum between 1850 and 1855, Dickens 
produced two great works, "Bleak House" and 
" Hard Times." The former contains the most 
extended picture of life among the titled aristoc- 
racy that he has presented. In fact, it is the only 
story in which this phase of English life is taken 
seriously. Here and there in other novels we are 
introduced to members of this class, but most of 
them, such as Lord Verisopht, Sir Mulberry Hawk, 
Lord Mutanhed and the Dowager Lady Snupha- 
nuph, are mere lay figures serving as the basis for 
occasional humor, sarcasm or wrath. Sir Leicester 
Dedlock and his household, with the numerous re- 
tainers and hangers-on, the feudal paternalism, the 
intense class-consciousness, are fundamental and 
conspicuous features. Although the novels that im- 
mediately preceded " Bleak House" ("Dombey and 
Son" and " David Copperfield") contain little that 
bears on economic questions, yet in 1846, the date of 
the former of these, Dickens had begun to feel deeply 
the unfairness of the factory system, and an in- 
cident at a meeting of factory operatives in Wilt- 
shire led to the writing of a poem of great fervor, 
unique among his productions in this line, entitled 
"The Hymn of the Wiltshire Laborers." 

In the road-breaking work of genius, the mental 
processes are probably largely unconscious: genius 
builds wiser than it knows. Thus Dickens, inter- 
preting the phenomena of human nature immediately 
around him, presents to us in the Dedlock-Rounce- 



45 

well episodes on the one hand, and the Bounderby- 
Blackpool episodes on the other, prophecies of the 
course of the economic struggle in England, now 
fully come to pass. Both series of episodes will 
repay careful analysis. Mr. Rouncewell represents 
vividly the rising middle-class, the bourgeoisie. 
The downfall of the feudal system and the rise of the 
commons to political control afforded an excellent 
chance for the rise of a new privileged class, and 
the men with a talent for the exploitation of labor 
promptly took advantage of it. It is probable 
that even under these conditions the bourgeoisie 
would have secured but limited control, but economic 
changes, the introduction of the steam-engine 
and the rapid invention of many forms of labor- 
saving machinery soon destroyed the power of 
skilled labor, and the factory system permitted the 
exploitation of the labor of women and children. 
In "Bleak House" the sympathy of most American 
readers is probably with Mr. Rouncewell. The 
culture and formal politeness of Sir Leicester do 
not atone for the air of superiority that he and his 
family so consciously express. We see in Rouncewell 
the influence that in the middle of the last century 
was regarded as the only influence that would bring 
in true democracy, and give effect to the glittering 
generality of the Declaration of Independence 
that "all men are created equal." We read with 
pleasure Mr. Tulkinghorn's statement that the 
elections had gone against Sir Leicester's interest 



46 

and that Mr. Rouncewell had been active in the 
campaign and had contributed largely to the re- 
sults. We smile with contempt at Sir Leicester's 
reply that the flood-gates of society are now open. 

In proportion as the Dedlock-Rouncewell epi- 
sodes arouse our sympathies for the ironmaster, 
the Bounderby-Blackpool incidents arouse our 
disapproval of the banker-mill-owner. Yet Rounce- 
well is to Bounderby what the caterpillar is to 
the moth: the feeding stage. We must not be 
misled by the special feature that makes Bounderby 
so repulsive, namely, his constant proclaiming of 
his early poverty and want of culture. This at- 
tribute has merely an accessory value. England 
at the time of the publication of this novel had 
thousands of Bounderbys, but few of them aired 
their obscure and lowly birth. The pseudo-frank- 
ness of the Coketown plutocrat is a secondary 
attribute; for the real personality we must seek 
his treatment of Blackpool, his talk about the 
"Hands" and their unreasonable aspirations, his 
views on the smoke nuisance, so similar to views 
put forth in Philadelphia by those who needlessly 
pollute the atmosphere without consideration for 
others. 

Turning from this class of characters, which the 
French critic terms the "antipathies," we may 
consider briefly what he has to say of the class he 
terms the "sympathies," that is, those whom 
Dickens presents in favorable light and on whom he 



47 

expends so much artistic effort to endear them 
to the reader. The German critic, whose opinions 
I summarized in a former essay, directed attention 
to this same class of characters. They are drawn 
largely from the lower middle class, that of which 
Dickens' family was a member. It is noticeable 
that, notwithstanding the large artisan class that 
existed in England at that time, characters are very 
rarely drawn from it. The senior and j unior Weller, 
Noggs, Swiveller, Cratchit, and many others are 
not factory operatives. Stephen Blackpool is a 
conspicuous exception. 

The objects of commendation are not drawn en- 
tirely from this lower class. It is temperament, 
not class, that finds favor with the great novelist. 
He presents to us a series of good rich men: 
Pickwick, the Cheeryble brothers, Wardle and 
Jarndyce are well marked types. 

I have presented merely a few of the points. 
The original fills a little over one hundred closely 
printed pages, and, therefore, the present essay gives 
but a sketchy abstract. I will conclude by giving 
a translation of a paragraph that summarizes the 
author's views on Dickens' methods. 

"Thus, Dickens establishes a bond between 
sentimental temperament and altruism. He did 
not separate the powers of affection and com- 
passion from the tendency to succor. It is for 
this reason that his writings are a vast and mani- 
fold suggestion of feeling. Taine saw and noted 



48 

this essential feature. 'In the final analysis, the 
jj writings of Dickens may be reduced to one phrase, 
•^namely: Be good and loving; there is no true joy 
but in the emotions of the heart; feeling is all of 
humanity.' Whatever may be the value of this 
gospel, whatever may be its practical perils, we 
cannot do justice to it without viewing it in relation 
to the contemporaneous movement in social senti- 
ment. Dickens is an artistic collaborater of Carlyle 
and Lord Ashley. 

" The social value of his work appears to us, there- 
fore, as psychologic. It resides in the emotions 
that the author experienced and aroused, apropos 
of human inequality, and recognized and described 
in a general way. For the special problems of in- 
dustrial society as they were in the period between 
1830 and 1850 the novels do not offer a direct 
solution. Their influence is no less real, but it is 
exercised on the feelings. It was at once the effect 
and the cause of a profound national reaction. 
It emphasized the revolt of the Christian sentiment 
against dry utilitarianism. In this it assumed 
some of the strongest and oldest tendencies of the 
English spirit. We can thus comprehend the posi- 
tion that Dickens occupies among the great artists 
of the century, and the terms in which his admirers 
glorify his genius. He is, they say, above all things 
national; in him is expressed the very voice of 
England. As one of the English critics has said 
1 He has entered into our everyday life in a manner 



49 

which no other living author has done. Much of his 
phraseology has become common property, and 
allusions to his works and quotations from them 
are made by everybody and in all places.' 

" As the work is national, it is also conservative. 
Social peace is the end, but collective or individual 
charity is the means. In a prophetic mood, as 
was Carlyle, Dickens offers the choice between 
immediate action and a social revolution. He 
labors for accord between the classes. If, how- 
ever, he has expressed, through his clear thought 
or profound instinct, all the tendencies of the re- 
actionary movement, his intimate acquaintance 
with human misery and the nature of his class- 
consciousness have kept him far from supporting 
aristocratic or feudal sentiments." 

I do not commit myself to agreement with all 
the opinions of the French critic, but he has cer- 
tainly made a profound study of the works and of 
all contemporaneous literature bearing on the topic 
which he treats, namely, the socio logic novel in 
England. 



Thoughts on the Drood Mystery. 



I remember the appearance of this novel in in- 
stallments at the time of its writing and I recall the 
general interest that it awakened in this country. 
Dickens' visit to us in 1842 had been followed by 
an account of his travels and observations and by 
the introduction of some American scenes into one 
of his novels. As he saw us in the later visit, great 
progress had been made; slavery had disappeared; 
the cities of the eastern portion of the country had 
increased in culture and importance; and the 
nation Had risen to the position of one of the world 
powers. 

It was, expected, therefore, by many Americans 
that he would take occasion, through the pages of 
a novel, to revoke some of the harsh judgments he 
had pronounced upon us in the story of Martin and 
Mark, as he had towards the Jewish community in 
his presentation of a character in "Our Mutual 
Friend." There were not wanting some, though 
the number was very few, who thought that per- 
haps the disappearance of Edwin Drood was pre- 
liminary to shifting the scene for a time to the 
United States, but the text offers no foundation for 
this view. 

50 



51 

The novel was received in the United States very 
differently by different persons. I do not think 
I do the great author injustice by saying that the 
first chapters were generally disappointing. A few 
of the critics expressed confidence that it would be 
one of his best novels, but most Americans found 
it dull. The intense localization of the scenes, 
presenting, as they did almost entirely, the rather 
commonplace life of an English cathedral town, 
did not attract the American reader who had been 
accustomed to the more worldly characters in the 
earlier novels. When I first read it, I was not much 
attracted to it, but it has grown in favor after close 
study. In view of its incompleteness, it is a 
subject for special controversial literature. 

I think it may be considered established that 
Drood was murdered. Numerous sentences from 
the novel might be quoted to show this, in addition 
to those frequently quoted by those who have been 
discussing this topic. 

Some points in the story lead one to think that 
if the novel had been completed along the lines that 
are generally supposed, it might have given rise to 
adverse criticism similar to that which was brought 
against the story of the death of the rag and bottle 
merchant in "Bleak House." Dickens there used 
the theory of "spontaneous combustion," but this 
has been shown by careful research in medical 
jurisprudence to be impossible. The complete 
disappearance of the body which is essential to the 



52 

story cannot take place. Dickens attempted to 
answer his critics, but his citations are in no sense 
convincing. Similarly, in "Edwin Drood" it 
appears from the text, and it is generally conceded, 
that the body of Drood was to be placed in the 
Sapsea vault and covered with lime. It is be- 
lieved that this lime would so far destroy the 
body as to leave no fragment for identification 
except the ring which the young man had with 
him and of which the murderer was ignorant. As 
a matter of fact, it would have required many 
buckets of lime to produce any notable destruction 
of tissue, and even after a considerable time much 
would have remained by which identification could 
have been made. 

It is not permissible to suppose that many 
months elapsed before the detection of the crime. 
The novel seems to have been about half finished; 
the detective who has appeared at the scene of the 
murder has already made considerable progress in 
elucidating the mystery and is obviously regarding 
Jasper as an important person in the crime. 

We will have to imagine that Jasper carried the 
lime into the Sapsea vault on the same night that 
the murder was committed, and it imposes a little 
upon our capacity for imagination to think of 
him carrying so much material through the streets 
of the town, even when the night was stormy and 
the streets deserted. 

Moreover, nothing is said as to Durdles noticing 



53 

next morning the disappearance of the lime, nor is 
it clear as to what condition this was in. Jasper had 
observed it a day or so before. It seems to be provecl 
that Drood was killed by strangulation with the 
stout silk scarf that Jasper wore on the day of the 
murder. It may be worth while noting here that a 
murder of this character appears to have been 
committed in Philadelphia about twenty years ago. 
A woman was probably strangled in her bed by a 
silk handkerchief, wound around the neck tightly 
and tied in two knots. The body was buried in the 
kitchen of her home and was found some fourteen 
years afterward in repairing the floor of that place. 
Nothing remained but a skeleton, a few fragments 
of cloth, a pocketbook and the handkerchief, some- 
what injured, but complete in its circle with its 
two knots. I was an expert in the case; heard the 
details of it, and saw this relic. 

It is permitted, to a limited extent, to the author 
of a work of fiction to pass beyond the bounds of 
probability, or at least to set up details in the plot 
which will not bear strict cross-examination. A 
great novel produces in the minds of most persons 
exactly the same effect as true history. To most 
of us who read Dickens with earnestness and 
interest, Mr. Pickwick is as real as Mr. Gladstone 
and Mr. Jefferson; Hamlet, Macbeth and Lear are 
as real to the readers of Shakspere as is Henry the 
Eighth or Wolsey. Nevertheless, we all recognize 
that we cannot subject these works of fiction to the 



54 

critical tests to which we subject writings that are 
intended to record history. 

Few, if any, of Shakspere's plays are consistent 
in regard to sequence in time. I do not mean by 
this merely that they are not faithful to the chronol- 
ogy of the period in which the action is cast. 
That fact is well known. Shakspere's anachro- 
nisms are frequent and almost unprecedented. 
He makes Hector quote Aristotle; he makes 
Hamlet allude to cannons. These inconsistencies 
do not disturb us. The playwright and the novel- 
ist create not only the characters, but, to a certain 
extent, a world of fiction which has its own methods 
and movements. It is permissible to genius, under 
these circumstances, even to make yesterday the 
day after to-morrow, which, if we closely analyze 
plays and novels, will be found to be often the 
case. The time-sequence in Shakspere's plays 
has been shown to be so utterly inconsistent with 
the normal course of affairs that one critic has 
suggested the introduction of two systems of time 
in most of the plays. Mr. Fitzgerald has shown 
the confusion of time-sequence in some respects in 
the story of Pickwick. 

Returning to the discussion of the murder of 
Drood and the disposal of the body, let us take up 
the incident of the finding of the jewelry. It is 
clear that Dickens intended, as has been shown by 
several critics, that Jasper should remove all the 
jewelry that he knew the young man carried. 



55 

This is brought out very strongly in the interview 
with the jeweler who tells Drood that Mr. Jasper 
knows what jewelry he (Drood) carries. It is not 
clear, however, how the presence of the watch and 
stick-pin in the river is to be explained, and there 
is a bit of what might be called " expert testimony" 
introduced which cannot be regarded as sound. 
The jeweler stated that the watch had not been 
wound since it had been in his shop that afternoon, 
and that it had run down before being thrown in 
the water. It does not appear to me that sufficient 
details can be adduced to justify any such decisions. 
It is possible that the statement is of the type 
denominated by Mr. Walters "false lights," and 
that in the development of the plot it would appear 
that Jasper had kept the jewelry for a little while 
and thrown it into the river when occasion offered. 
It cannot be supposed that Drood was murdered 
near the river, for Mr. Landless, when asked what 
happened when they went down to look at the 
river on the night of the disappearance, said that 
they stayed on the bank about ten minutes and 
then walked back together to Mr. Crisparkle's 
house, where Drood took leave of him, saying he 
was "going straight back." This expression 
"straight back" means back to Mr. Jasper's 
house. It is not at all likely that Mr. Jasper 
would then lure him to the river to murder him 
and have the trouble of dragging the body all the 
way back to the Sapsea vault. Drood was prob- 



56 

ably murdered in Jasper's house or near the ceme- 
tery. 

Conceding, then, that one phase of " The Mystery 
of Edwin Drood," namely, Drood's disappearance, 
was due to his murder and the hiding of his body, 
it is necessary to consider the course of events which 
would have led up to the discovery of the crime and 
the detection of the criminal. Fortunately for 
these inquries, the novel progressed far enough to 
introduce an important agent in this work. A 
person evidently on detective duty suddenly 
appears in Cloisterham. The identity of Mr. 
Datchery has been one of the questions actively, 
and, one might almost say, even acrimoniously, 
debated. Several suppositions may be made. 
In the first place, is he an entirely new character 
or is he one of the familiar persons of the story in 
disguise? So far as the latter feature of the sup- 
position is concerned, it may be said with confidence 
that we are limited to Bazzard and Helena Land- 
less. In recent publications on the subject, each 
of these solutions finds a strenuous champion. 
Mr. Walters is thoroughly satisfied that the detec- 
tive is Helena Landless; Mr. Charles is just as 
thoroughly satisfied that he is Mr. Bazzard. 

Each theory has its difficulties and its advantages. 
It seems as if the existing chapters of Edwin Drood 
have been sprinkled more liberally than usual with 
remarks suggestive of the course of the plot, but 
it is a question how far these apparent lights, true 



57 

and false, are the product of intense critical exam- 
ination, or intentional suggestions by the author. 
In all departments of the so-called "higher criti- 
cism" the influence of the "expected" is very apt 
to mislead. What we expect to find is apt to be 
found. We are like FitzJames wandering through 
the woods, where 

" Still from copse and heather deep 
Fancy saw spear and broadsword peep." 

Taking up the theory that Datchery is Miss 
Landless, we find the several reasons in its favor 
to be her stalwart, almost masculine nature; her 
deep dislike and mistrust of Jasper; the necessity 
of active service to acquit her brother of the suspi- 
cion which she knows to be unjust; and her friend- 
ship for Rosa. Early in the story her brother tells 
of how the two of them had run away from home in 
Ceylon, she dressing for concealment in male 
attire. This is supposed to be one of the strongest 
indications on the part of the author of the ability 
of Miss Landless to pose as a man, but if Dickens 
intended this plan, he surely overlooked some grave, 
practical objections to its execution. There is no 
comparison between the disguises of a young girl in 
the loose male attire of the natives of Ceylon and 
the close-fitting dress of an English cathedral 
town. Furthermore, in Ceylon the disguise, even 
if insufficient to conceal the sex, would have ex- 
cited no particular attention among a large pro- 



58 

portion of the population, who have nothing like 
the standards of propriety that exist in the settled 
social circles in which the detective work was being 
done. We have to imagine that a young woman, 
fully developed, was able, for a considerable period, 
to masquerade as a man in the midst of people who 
had known her for some months. It seems im- 
possible that she could have escaped discovery for 
even an hour. Mrs. Tope would surely have de- 
tected her sex, if not her identity. Her voice 
would have betrayed her to those who had met her 
previously. Mr. Walters is fully aware of this 
difficulty in his theory, and he meets it by the 
statement (page 85) that 

" so far as the records in the story go, Helena and 
" Jasper only met once face to face, and it is of the 
" utmost significance that Dickens does not repre- 
sent them as exchanging a single word." 

This is, however, not justified by the text. It is 
true that during the dinner, at which, under 
ordinary circumstances, there would have been 
ample opportunity for conversation, the extra- 
ordinary Mr. Honeythunder monopolized the con- 
versation to such an extent that, as Mr. Crisparkle 
said, Mr. Neville did not even get a chance to speak 
to his sister. Later, however, the philanthropist 
was hurried off to the omnibus. It was five 
minutes' walk from the house to the omnibus 
station, and Mr. Crisparkle and Mr. Landless not 
only walked there and back, but took several extra 



59 

turns to complete their conversation, and prior to 
the last stroll stood at the house door and heard 
"a cheerful sound of voices and laughter." We 
must assume at least twenty minutes of time for 
their absence, and it does not seem at all likely that 
Helena Landless was silent. Mr. Jasper must 
have heard her voice and seen the play of expression 
on her features quite sufficiently to recognize her 
under such disguise as that which Mr. Datchery 
assumed. There is nothing in the character of 
Helena Landless which would lead us to assume 
that she could act successfully the masculine part 
in the sense in which she is supposed to have done. 
That she had unusual courage for a woman, great 
self-control, great capacity for sacrifice and devo- 
tion, is undoubted, but these do not give mas- 
culinity of deportment. All that we see of her is 
that she retained fully her womanliness. There is 
no reason to suppose that in the disguise which she 
assumed in childhood, she had successfully imitated 
the masculine manners. According to the story, 
these masqueradings occurred between the ages of 
7 and 13, and there is a great difference, as I have 
said, between such a girl putting on male attire in 
Ceylon and a woman of 21 attempting the same in 
an English city. That Helena Landless was 21, we 
know from the observations of Mr. Honeythunder 
that his wards were of age and had been dismissed 
from his control. Concerning the recognition of 
the voice, it must be borne in mind that Mr. Jasper 
5 



60 

is credited with especial acuteness in such matters; 
he was able to distinguish Durdles' keys by sound. 

Incidental objections have also appealed to Mr. 
Walters, particularly that on page 80 of his book, 
concerning the meals that Datchery ordered. He 
dismisses this objection briefly, but his explanation 
does not appeal to me. Nor is his argument con- 
cerning the peculiar method of keeping the record 
of investigations at all satisfactory. We may 
understand the significance of the chalk marks, 
but the difficulty is how could Miss Landless acquire 
any knowledge of that method. Nor is there any 
necessity for it, since she could keep to herself the 
memoranda, and the handwriting consequently 
would be of no significance. Mr. Walters' idea is 
that it was necessary to have some method by 
which the handwriting should be concealed, but it 
does not appear that there would be any necessity 
for the detective to write down anything. It 
seems more likely that this chalk-mark system of 
keeping scores was intended to be brought in at a 
later period of the novel in a relation that cannot 
be determined from the existing text. 

In a recent communication in The Dickensian, 
Mr. Walters has reiterated his confidence in his 
theory, and antagonizes that of Mr. Charles, who 
holds that Datchery was Bazzard. Mr. Walters 
dismisses the Bazzard theory with the statement 
that most of the indications upon which Mr. Charles 
relies are false lights intended by the author to 



61 

lead to just such an erroneous opinion. It seems 
to me, however, that it is not sound criticism to 
thus make fish of one set of statements and flesh 
of the other. We are perfectly at liberty to regard 
some of the clues that Mr. Walters offers in support 
of his theory as false lights. I repeat here the 
caution that viewing these texts with such minutely 
critical methods, with, as Mr. Samuel Weller would 
have said, "A pair of patent, double million, 
magnifying gas microscopes of hextra power," we 
see many things that the author did not intend. 
Dickens was representing, in accordance with his 
methods, live people, dealing with the serious 
issues of life, and moving and having their being in 
an English town. Not every utterance is pregnant. 
Much of the conversation is framed to meet ar- 
tistic requirements; every character of importance 
must be given such a part to play as shall clearly 
indicate to the reader the temperament and moral 
principles represented. Some of the account, there- 
fore, which Mr. Landless gives to his tutor con- 
cerning his sister may not have so deep a signifi- 
cance as that which Mr. Walters attaches to it. 

Nor can I accept the view, upon which Mr. 
Walters insists so strongly, that Bazzard is a stupid 
person merely put in to be an object of ridicule. I 
think it not at all unreasonable to suppose that the 
facts of the unproduced play and its title, " The 
Thorn of Anxiety, " were introduced to be made 
part of the later developments of the plot. The 



62 

subordinate position of Bazzard need not be re- 
garded as rendering him unavailable for detective 
duty. Mr. Nadgett is merely a man kept "at a 
pound a week" to investigate the persons applying 
for protection in Mr. Tigg's company. However, 
it must be said that, in spite of all that has been 
written, the identity of Datchery is in doubt, and 
it is as likely as not that he was not any character 
so far presented in the book. 

Other phases of the novel deserve consideration. 
I have been interested in comparing it with "Our 
Mutual Friend, "which as its immediate prede- 
cessor will be worth while studying to see if the two 
works possess any peculiarities in common. 

We find at once striking resemblances, all the 
more so because they are features that do not 
appear in the other novels. Both novels have for 
a prominent motive the betrothal of a couple by 
the "dead hand." Differences of detail are, of 
course, noted, but the motive is not found in any 
of the other great stories. Further, in each of 
them a murderous rivalry for the love of a woman 
forms a prominent feature. Here again the details 
differ; the betrothed heroine of " Our Mutual 
Friend" is not the object of this rivalry, but the 
heroine of "Edwin Drood" is. The point is that 
Dickens had never before introduced into his 
novels a manifestation of love so strong as to 
lead to a great crime. It is of no importance that 
the attempt on Wrayburn failed. It was intended 



63 

to be a murder. Rivalries in love are to be found 
in the earlier novels, but most of them are little 
more than nominal, and lead to comedy not tragedy. 
Simon's love for Dolly; Uriah's thoughts of Agnes; 
John's fondness for Amy; Bob's intentions to- 
wards Arabella; all these are of secondary in- 
terest, and almost always when brought to notice 
are used for producing amusing situations. Even 
in the deeper touches of passion, as in the cases of 
Carker, Maiden, Harthouse and Steerforth, the 
tragic feature that so often in real life follows upon 
such relations is kept out by special methods. 

It is matter of some little wonder to the American 
mind that Dickens' novels show so little of the 
personality of the Anglican clergy. From other 
English literature it would seem that its hierarchy 
is numerous and that it influences profoundly 
English society. The clergymen of the novels of 
Dickens are generally non-conformists and are held 
up to ridicule. He did not seem to see any pos- 
sibility of sincerity or philosophy in them. In 
"Our Mutual Friend," the Reverend Mr. Milvey 
appears. He is but a faint figure in the story, but 
he is given an attractive personality. In "Edwin 
Drood" a clerical figure is given great prominence. 
Yet it is to be noted that the author's wonderful 
capacity for seeing character compelled him to 
present the higher dignitary — the Dean — in a 
decidedly unattractive light. The conversation 
between the Dean and the Minor Canon relative 



64 

to the relinquishment of the latter's tutorship of 
Neville is one of the most dramatic paragraphs in 
the work, and shows that, however strong had 
become the author's interest in the church, he 
could not overlook the deference to convention 
often noted in its more favored dignitaries. 

It is conceded also that in the last novel Dickens 
professedly undertook to develop an intricate 
plot. It is doubtful, however, if he would have 
succeeded. Unless the later chapters of "Edwin 
Drood" were to follow a different course from 
those that are before us, the outcome of the main 
action of the novel would have been detected long 
before the last chapter appeared. We have, how- 
ever, quite enough of the text to show that the 
great author's tendencies had undergone material 
change, and that had he lived the full period of 
threescore and ten, he would have probably added 
several stories that would have contrasted strongly 
intone and method with his earlier work. Yet it 
must not be overlooked that in the earliest period 
of his career he had given evidence of great ver- 
satility, for Pickwick was immediately followed by 
"Oliver Twist." It would be difficult to find two 
novels as different in motive and phase as these. 

Another interesting inquiry suggests itself. 
What part was it intended that Mr. Honeythunder 
should play? Is he merely a passing figure, in- 
troduced to enable the author to express views on 
one phase of the movement for social reform in 



65 

England, or would he have been used later to 
assist or delay the realization of the plot? He 
dominates the story whenever he appears, and 
from the acrimonious discussion with Mr. Cris- 
parkle it seems that the especial object of Dickens' 
disapproval was the temperance movement. I see 
in the character of Honeythunder a symptom of 
the changing point of view as to sociology that had 
been brought about by the increasing years and in- 
creasing satisfaction with life, the usual result 
when life has been successful both as to fame and 
fortune. 

We can feel tolerably sure as to the main course 
of the novel, but the details are unobtainable. 
We must say of the work, as Longfellow said of 
Hawthorne: 

"Ah! Who shall lift that wand of magic power, 
And the lost clew regain? 
The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower 
Unfinished must remain." 



Translations of Poems. 



The following brief abstracts from translations 
appearing in the standard editions of "Pickwick" 
in French and German will perhaps be of some 
interest as showing how the translators have suc- 
ceeded in meeting the difficulties of the English 
construction and the requirements of rime and 
measure. It has not been deemed necessary to 
give more than a few lines of each of the well- 
known poems. 



66 



THE EXPIRING FROG. 

A une grenouille expirante (Madam Chasselion). 

Puis-je te voir sanglante et pantelante. 

Sur ton ventre, sans soupirer? 
Puis-je sans pleurs te contempler mourante, 

Sur un rocher, 
Grenouille expirante? 

THE IVY GREEN. 
Le Lrierre. 

Oh! quelle plante singuliere 

Que ce vieux gourmand de lierre, 

Qui rampe sur d'anciens debris! 

WARDLE'S SONG OF CHRISTMAS. 
J'aime peu le printemps; sur son aile inconstante 
II apporte, il est vrai, les boutons et les fleurs, 
Mais ce qu'epanouit son haleine enivrante, 
II le brule aussitot par ses folles rigueurs. 



67 



THE EXPIRING FROG. 

Ode auf einen hinsterbenden Lurch. 

Kann ich ohne Zagen, Klagen, 
Driicken seh'n dich deinen Magen 
Auf dem feuchten Todesschragen 
Einer Wiesenfurch', 
Hinsterbender Lurch? 



THE IVY GREEN. 

Griin-Epheu. 

Oh, ein kostlich' Gewachs ist der Epheu grtin, 

Der alte Ruinen umkreucht ; 
Gar ein herrlich' Gericht ist gerustet fiir ihn 

In der Zelle kalt und feucht. 

WARDLE'S SONG OF CHRISTMAS. 
Der Lenz gilt mir gleich, auf Fittichen weich 

Mag er bringen der Blumen Pracht; 
Sie welken ob Wind und Regen, und sind 

Dahin eh' der Morgen erwacht. 



68 



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